Cowboys Offensive Line Struggles in Season-Opening Loss to Tulsa

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TULSA — There were plenty of things to be concerned about for the Cowboys on Saturday, but the top of that list is probably the offensive line.

As part of Oklahoma State’s 24-10 loss to Tulsa on Saturday, quarterback Drew Mestemaker was sacked twice and hurried 10 times. Meanwhile, the Cowboys struggled to run the ball outside of Caleb Hawkins, as everyone else combined to run 19 times for 48 yards (2.5 yards a carry).

“Yeah, seems like a lot, just thinking back on it, looking at the iPad during it,” said first-year coach Eric Morris on how much of Tulsa’s advantage came up front. “And there’s some times our pullers, pulling guards, they were more physical, we got pushed back and that destroys any kind of gap scheme running that you’re doing. I thought they did a really nice job handling it. They moved their front a ton, and we didn’t handle that movement very well up front on the offensive line.”

The Cowboys’ starting offensive line read:

LT — Jacob Sexton
LG — Johnny Dickson III
C — Tyler Mercer
RG — Joseph Hanson
RT — Ashton Lepo

But those starters managed just six plays before Sexton went down with what looked to be a serious leg injury, an extra sad ordeal given his injury history.

From there, the Cowboys rotated Desmond Magiya and Shaun Torgeson at left tackle, while Torgeson was also rotating some at right tackle with Lepo.

Losing Sexton was no doubt a big deal, but he is only one-fifth of the line. The six-play sample size is too small to draw anything from, but the Cowboys were moving the ball fairly smoothly in those six plays. Then after Sexton went down, the Cowboys got stuffed on a fourth down inside Tulsa’s 5-yard line.

“Heart goes out to Jacob, a guy who has definitely been our best offensive lineman since we’ve been here,” Morris said. “Somebody that’s worked so hard this offseason to get himself back into shape. He’s been plagued by injuries his whole entire career. … So obviously losing him, and then I didn’t think we had a great answer on the edge.

“(Magiya) got beat a number of times around the edge, got a holding penalty at a crucial time in the game. So I think Sexton, obviously you lose a really good player at left tackle, that’s not what you want, but that’s not an excuse. They took it to us in so many different areas.”

If Sexton isn’t going to be back this year, which — given he was put in an air cast and carted off — would be surprising if he did make it back, there is some still some hope reinforcements could be on the way.

Morris said that junior Braydon Nelson recently returned to practice after missing fall camp with injury. Nelson started all of North Texas’ games at tackle last season.

“He’s week by week,” Morris said. “He finally started practicing, and so week by week right now. We’ll make sure that we get him all the way healthy. He’s back in some (individual) drills. Hasn’t done anything team-wise yet, but these next couple weeks, hopefully, you know, we’ll have a ramp up period, try to get his strength up, and at the same time, you know, we need that kid to be healthy before stick him out there.”

The Cowboys’ offensive line doesn’t have long to figure things out, with Oregon coming to Stillwater next week.

Last season, the Ducks had two sacks and 10 hurries against the Cowboys — eerily the same stats Tulsa put up against OSU on Saturday.

“Just grade them, see where they’re at,” said Morris on what’s next for the O-line. “You know, some of them I thought got tired and weren’t very good as they got tired in the game, and some of them did OK. So we’ll have to really go back, and we’ll be detailed on grading those guys to figure out who’s going to give this team the best chance to win.”